1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to Machine Type Communication (MTC), and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for configuration of logical channels for an MTC application in a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of wireless applications, the wireless network technology has evolved to provide data transfer capabilities which are not only for Human to Human (H2H) communication applications, but also for Machine to Machine (M2M) communication applications. The M2M communication application is a field that is growing rapidly, providing a large number of potential business opportunities.
The M2M communication or the MTC bears enormous application diversity. Examples of fields in which the M2M communication or the MTC is used includes smart meter, alarm system, road tolling system, and asset tracking system fields and so on. The M2M communication or the MTC allows wireless communication applications not only for mobile phones, but also laptop computers. With a suitable M2M server, the M2M communication or the MTC allows any device that is integrated with an MTC module to connect to a network and perform the execution of an MTC application. Compared to H2H or the human to machine (H2M) communication, the M2M communication or the MTC is a type of data exchange which requires no human interaction.
The characteristics of the MTC include a large quantity of MTC devices, small data sizes (e.g. 3 to 5 bytes), and delay tolerability. When MAC layer spec for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology are present, the data generated by the MTC applications and the data generated by normal user equipment (UE) applications are transmitted using the same logical channels, wherein the MTC applications require no human interactions and the normal UE applications require human interactions. The logical channels include the Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH), the Common Control Channel (CCCH), and the Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH). For example, metered data for a smart meter and voice or data traffic for a mobile phone are transmitted on the same logical channels. Moreover, within the existing Quality of Service (QoS) architecture, the M2M communication or MTC application may share the same QoS level with other normal UE applications. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish the M2M communication or MTC devices from the normal UEs through the QoS level of the data flow. Thus, it is difficult for a MAC scheduler to determine a priority among the M2M communication or MTC devices and normal UEs; although the M2M communication or the MTC devices usually have a lower priority. In the case when the quantity of MTC devices gets too large which lead the MTC data increase dramatically, the scheduling for the data of the normal UEs are definitely affected by the large amount of MTC data.